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Chief executive Paul Walsh is playing hardball with the Beckmanns, threatening not to renew the distribution agreement on the current terms unless he can strike an equity deal. He covets Cuervo because the drink is already one of the firm’s 14 top-selling ‘strategic brands’. The deal would help Diageo increase in the rapidly-growing Latin American market.

Tequila is a big growth market which sells 24million nine-litre cases annually. In 2010 the market grew 5.2 per cent in America.

Walsh has been growing the drinks giant, snapping up local spirits in rapid-growth regions rather than paying a premium to acquire expensive brands.

He bought Mey Içki, which controls 80 per cent of the market for Turkey’s popular aniseed-based drink raki and is in talks to buy India’s United Spirits, home to Whyte and Mackay, Jura and Bagpiper.